Norway leads sporting world after March

Submitted by nicolamira on 28 March, 2020 - 16:57

As the world of sports is shutting down to join the fight against Covid-19, we’re happy to bring you fresh GSN data for the first quarter of 2020.

Last year’s Per Capita Cup champion Norway is currently leading the Global Cup, the ranking of the world’s best sporting nations, after winning emphatically the March monthly ranking (the full monthly table is below). It is also top of the Per Capita Cup, an amazing feat, though one that Norway has already achieved before.

Unsurprisingly, Snow & Ice sports have dominated the last three months, accounting for 4,903 of the 6,619 GSN points awarded so far this year (74.0%). Even less surprisingly, 2018 and 2019 Snow & Ice sports winner Norway has made the most of this and surged to a commanding lead in both the Global Cup and the Per Capita Cup at the end of March.

Norway is 266 points ahead of Germany in the year-to-date Global Cup ranking, with almost double the points of perpetual Global Cup champion USA, currently in sixth place. In March, Norway triumphed in the women’s Ski Jumping World Cup, the men’s Nordic Combined World Cup, the women’s Cross-Country Skiing World Cup, and in the men’s overall Alpine Skiing World Cup, besides taking also the men’s slalom and giant slalom titles in the same competition. Of Norway’s 526 points scored in March, 8 came from the Track Cycling World Championships (won by the Netherlands ahead of Germany and Italy), the rest from Snow & Ice sports.

Like Norway, also Switzerland, Germany and Italy - making up the other top-five countries in the Global Cup together with Russia - have scored most of their points in Snow & Ice sports so far this year. The only exception in the top-10 is the Netherlands, which scored 43% of its points in Cycling, with 113 points in Track Cycling and 40 in the Cyclocross World Championships. In the latter, the Dutch clinched both the men’s and women’s individual titles, and placed four in the top five in the ladies’ race! In addition to this, the Netherlands scored 202 points in Speedskating, winning the Single Distance and finishing second in the Sprint World Championships.

There is a big question mark over the rest of the sporting year of course. We will continue to monitor what is happening and track all the GSN qualifying tournaments that will be taking place, hoping there will be many of them!

GLOBAL CUP 2020 – MARCH MONTHLY RANKING

Place

Country

Points

Points %

1

Norway

526

12.2%

2

Switzerland

382

8.8%

3

Germany

335

7.7%

4

Italy

290

6.7%

5

United States

282

6.5%

6

Austria

236

5.5%

7

Canada

230

5.3%

8

France

220

5.1%

9

Russia

189

4.4%

10

Japan

189

4.4%

11

Netherlands

162

3.7%

12

Australia

150

3.5%

13

Ethiopia

123

2.8%

14

Great Britain

122

2.8%

15

Sweden

103

2.4%

16

New Zealand

82

1.9%

17

China

80

1.8%

18

Slovakia

68

1.6%

19

India

48

1.1%

20

Czech Republic

44

1.0%

21

Belgium

40

0.9%

22

Finland

35

0.8%

23

South Africa

33

0.8%

24

Poland

32

0.7%

25

Israel

30

0.7%

26

Denmark

29

0.7%

27

Spain

29

0.7%

28

Kenya

27

0.6%

29

Slovenia

26

0.6%

30

West Indies

21

0.5%

31

Belarus

19

0.4%

32

Latvia

18

0.4%

33

South Korea

15

0.3%

34

Malaysia

13

0.3%

35

Portugal

12

0.3%

36

Croatia

12

0.3%

37

Brunei

12

0.3%

38

Mexico

12

0.3%

39

Hong Kong

11

0.3%

40

Kazakhstan

11

0.3%

41

Sri Lanka

9

0.2%

42

Pakistan

9

0.2%

43

Uzbekistan

5

0.1%

44

Lithuania

4

0.1%

45

South Korea

3

0.1%

46

Ireland

1

0.0%

Grand Total

4,329

100.0%

Follow GSN also on Facebook and Twitter and keep up with the latest in the quest for the world’s best sporting nation!

Greatest Sporting Nation is a ranking of countries based on their performance in top-level international tournaments in sports in which there is genuine global competition. Countries (national teams and/or individual athletes) score Qualifying Points by finishing in the top eight places in Qualifying Events.

These Qualifying Points are then weighted to produce GSN Points, based on a formula that takes into account individual vs team sports, the sport’s participation (number of countries) and the frequency (annual/biennial/quadrennial) of the tournaments.

The Country scoring the most Points in a calendar year wins the Global Cup for that year. The country that scores the most points relative to its population wins the Per Capita Cup. For a more detailed explanation, please refer to the ‘How It Works’ section on the site.